Economic co-operation across the Finnish-Russian border - factors of sluggish development and success of enterprises

• Main Authors: Vesa Rautio, Markku Tykkyläinen, Jnos Gcs
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Kola Peninsula; kola peninsula
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.33.5756; http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-071.ps

The post-Cold War era in Europe in the 1990s has caused people to recognize the complexity of economic development and economic co-operation. The opening of borders has not always meant an increase in the cross-border economic activities in general. On the contrary, the adverse socio-economic development of many border areas has been unanticipated. The Finnish-Russian border is one example of this dissonance. This paper analyses the operation of Finnish companies in economic activities in Russia during the 1990s. The study investigates barriers to the Finnish-Russian trade, economic co-operation and foreign direct investment (FDI). A micro level approach is applied aiming to find out what is the role of institutions, mental boundaries and pure economic factors in this border-crossing development process. The authors have chosen the mining company Pechenganickel and its employees in two Russian mining towns on the Kola Peninsula, Nikel and Zapolyarnyj, as their case study objects for .